{"id":466567,"date":"2026-02-13T16:24:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/466567\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T16:24:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:24:26","slug":"qinwen-zheng-names-key-issue-that-affected-her-match-against-elena-rybakina-in-qatar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/466567\/","title":{"rendered":"Qinwen Zheng names key issue that affected her match against Elena Rybakina in Qatar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Qinwen Zheng\u2019s impressive run in Qatar came to an end on Tuesday after a hard-fought battle with Elena Rybakina.<\/p>\n

After dropping the first set 6-4, Rybakina responded well, taking the second set 6-2 to force a decider.<\/p>\n

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Zheng then found herself down 2-5 in the final set but managed to rally back to level at 5-5 before losing the last two games.<\/p>\n

The Chinese star played some good tennis over the past week, even with five months away from competitive play before this event. She pushed one of the most in-form players in the world and did not look far off her best.<\/p>\n

After her loss to Rybakina, Zheng spoke about what went wrong against the two-time Grand Slam winner.<\/p>\n

Qinwen Zheng admits concentration lapses during Rybakina match\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo by Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In Doha, Zheng said to reporters: \u201cI think the problem is during a match I have some up-and-down focus, and suddenly I lose concentration for a long time.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI guess that\u2019s because for a long time I didn\u2019t compete.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope (by) playing more matches this will get better. (I\u2019m) always looking for things to improve, and that\u2019s what I see from this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zheng fired nine aces against Rybakina and won 70 per cent of points behind her first serve. She also claimed 55 per cent of second-serve points and converted two of five break chances.<\/p>\n

Despite those strong numbers, she finished with six double faults, an area she will be keen to tidy up moving forward.<\/p>\n

In comparison, Rybakina hit six aces to just one double fault, matched Zheng\u2019s 70 per cent on first serves, but converted four out of ten break-point opportunities.<\/p>\n

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The Kazakh now moves on to face Victoria Mboko in the quarter-finals. The 2025 Canadian Open champion got past Mirra Andreeva in a long battle during the round of 16.<\/p>\n

Will Qinwen Zheng take home a Grand Slam title in 2026?<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old has the talent to win a Grand Slam, but whether she can put it all together remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Zheng already has a Grand Slam final under her belt from the 2024 Australian Open and an Olympic gold medal on her CV.<\/p>\n

That experience should serve her well, and given how sharp she has looked since returning to action, she will be a real factor at the majors this year.<\/p>\n

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Zheng\u2019s first shot at a major title will come at Roland-Garros. Last year, she reached the quarter-finals after wins over Victoria Mboko and Liudmila Samsonova before falling to Aryna Sabalenka.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Qinwen Zheng\u2019s impressive run in Qatar came to an end on Tuesday after a hard-fought battle with Elena…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[21338,24451,99,428],"class_list":["post-466567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-qinwen-zheng","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}